First Big Funding Drop for Early Childhood Service

1st November 2010
For Immediate Release

First Big Funding Drop for Early Childhood Services

Kindergartens and early childhood centres around the country will see the first big drop in funding today as the result of the Government budget cuts to early childhood education.

The government is cutting $295 million dollars out of the early childhood budget by removing subsidies to those services which employ more than 80% qualified teachers. The cuts will change funding to 2000 services and affect 93,000 children nationwide.

Early childhood services receive their funding in quarterly payments so the November 1st payment will include one month of the radically slashed rates. The full force of the cuts will be felt in February next year.

“Today the reality of the government cuts will hit home as kindergartens and centres see their reduced funding coming through,” says NZEI Vice President Judith Nowotarski.

“Everyone has been working to figure out how they will survive on less funding and many services will be increasing parent fees from today to cover the shortfall.”

A recent survey by the New Zealand Childcare Association showed that over 70% of the centres surveyed said they would be increasing their fees by between $10-50 a week per child and 60% said they expected participation levels to drop as a result.

The cuts are also already impacting on staffing. 14 teacher aides in kindergartens in the Wanganui region are losing their jobs at Christmas with kindergartens losing about 13% of their budget.

“These cuts penalise those services which are trying to provide the best quality education for children by having fully qualified staff and in the end families and children will be the losers. The government can no longer be allowed to turn a blind eye to that,” says Mrs Nowotarksi.

ENDS

**An early childhood teacher and parent are bungy jumping off Auckland’s Harbour Bridge today to highlight the funding drop. High quality photos will be available.

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